Holdkey
- Freemium • Proprietary
- Windows
What is Holdkey?
Holdkey is a Windows program that makes it easy to type characters with accents. No more hassle with alt codes or other time consuming methods to create characters like : é à ø ü € ß ñ ï ç ö e g and many many more.
Holdkey has a learning curve of about 1 minute, just type like you always do until you need a character with an accent, then hold the character for half a second, a small window with several character variations appears, then choose the one you want. Holdkey runs in the background and works with almost all programs.
Holdkey Screenshots
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Suggest and vote on featuresHoldkey information
Supported Languages
- English
Comments and Reviews
Said about Holdkey as an alternative
AntumDeluge
Both are used for quick input of special characters.
Positive comment• ago
• as an alternative to 
Tags
- alt-codes
- accented-characters
Recent user activities on Holdkey
POX added Holdkey as alternative(s) to Codepoint
POX added Holdkey as alternative(s) to Peachy- nascentt reviewed Holdkeyna_\[Edited by nascentt, January 29 2022\]_ Further Downgrading rating as after two years of suffering as I just realized that this program is the reason I've been unable to click non-administratives windows if I have an administrative window open, and also have been unable to use keyboard keys at the same time as dragging the mouse (such as shift drag and ctrl drag, commonly used by photoshop). I also got frequent freezes when using the mouse that locked up my computer for a few seconds every now and again. I thought I had a faulty computer so bought an entirely new computer only for the issues to persist. Disabling holdkey solved all the issues. Pity as I love the idea. The best thing I can find instead is the Windows 10 Touch Keyboard, it lets to click and hold a letter to get the accented versions. Would be nice to have such an option with physical keyboard like holdkey, but at least it works and doesn't have all the issues holdkey has. _\[Edited by nascentt, December 29 2020\]_ Downgrading rating as the program is extremely buggy and developer doesn't help. bought pro to try and solve constant program failures, only for them to increase with pro version (program stops working twice every 15 minutes) can't recommend this anymore with the severe issues is has. Discovered this after upgrading to a new laptop that lacks the accent keys. Trying to constantly use character map was cumbersome, and Alt Gr doesn't give enough control over which accents to use. Had hoped, now that Microsoft owns Swiftkey, that such functionality would be built into windows, but alas Holdkeys is the only solution I can find that allows you to use your physicl keyboard as normal, but hold a key to display accented versions of the letter. The fact as you can use it for free is incredible.
The free version is good enough but Pro version is even more amazing!
[Edited by nascentt, January 29 2022]
Further Downgrading rating as after two years of suffering as I just realized that this program is the reason I've been unable to click non-administratives windows if I have an administrative window open, and also have been unable to use keyboard keys at the same time as dragging the mouse (such as shift drag and ctrl drag, commonly used by photoshop). I also got frequent freezes when using the mouse that locked up my computer for a few seconds every now and again. I thought I had a faulty computer so bought an entirely new computer only for the issues to persist. Disabling holdkey solved all the issues. Pity as I love the idea. The best thing I can find instead is the Windows 10 Touch Keyboard, it lets to click and hold a letter to get the accented versions. Would be nice to have such an option with physical keyboard like holdkey, but at least it works and doesn't have all the issues holdkey has.
[Edited by nascentt, December 29 2020]
Downgrading rating as the program is extremely buggy and developer doesn't help. bought pro to try and solve constant program failures, only for them to increase with pro version (program stops working twice every 15 minutes)
can't recommend this anymore with the severe issues is has.
Discovered this after upgrading to a new laptop that lacks the accent keys. Trying to constantly use character map was cumbersome, and Alt Gr doesn't give enough control over which accents to use.
Had hoped, now that Microsoft owns Swiftkey, that such functionality would be built into windows, but alas Holdkeys is the only solution I can find that allows you to use your physicl keyboard as normal, but hold a key to display accented versions of the letter.
The fact as you can use it for free is incredible.
Thanks for warning.
Reply written ago